Born Koga Hirosada in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, he earned a degree from the University of Tokyo before co-founding the Bunkaza Theatre Company with Isao Yamagata in 1942. Transitioning to film in 1946, he amassed more than a hundred screen credits between 1947 and 1997 and directed six pictures, launching his directorial career with Kanikōsen in 1953. Western viewers first noticed him in the 1958 pr…
